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Sierra Leone President Calls for Seizing Opportunities in Africa

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)
Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)
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Sierra Leone President Calls for Seizing Opportunities in Africa

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)
Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio stressed Thursday importance of working towards attaining political stability, grasping and exploiting opportunities for the best of the African continent.

Speaking during the inauguration of the sixth International Africa Development Forum (FIAD) in Casablanca, he emphasized that Africa has enormous potentials, a high population and diverse natural resources.

He added that Africa offers huge opportunities for African investors in various sectors, underlining the need to fill the infrastructure gap. Maada Bio praised the commitment of Morocco's King Mohammed VI to the development in the African continent.

The forum is meant to bring together and connect 2,000 African figures from the worlds of business, finance and politics.

Mohamed El Kettani, Chairman and CEO of Attijariwafa Bank Group, said that the purpose of the forum is to gather all African actors in order to mull challenges facing Africa and possible means to transform them into opportunities.

Africa represents a “hope” to global growth since it maintains a reliable approach amid a fluctuating environment, he added.

African economic growth reached 3.5 percent in 2018 and is anticipated to rise to 4 percent in 2019, while inflation average dropped to 10.9 percent in 2018 from 12.6 percent in 2017, and is forecast to drop to 8.1 percent in 2020, he noted.

Africa has opportunities as much as it has challenges, Kettani said.

Regional integration is a key topic in the forum and significant progress has been made on the institutional level in which 44 out of 54 African states are now involved in regional federations, he stated, while highlighting efforts to establish an African free trade zone.

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IMF Approves Third Review of Sri Lanka's $2.9 Bln Bailout

Peter Breuer, Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF along with Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF and Martha Tesfaye Woldemichael, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF, attend a press conference organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage
Peter Breuer, Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF along with Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF and Martha Tesfaye Woldemichael, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF, attend a press conference organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage
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IMF Approves Third Review of Sri Lanka's $2.9 Bln Bailout

Peter Breuer, Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF along with Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF and Martha Tesfaye Woldemichael, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF, attend a press conference organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage
Peter Breuer, Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF along with Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF and Martha Tesfaye Woldemichael, Deputy Mission Chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF, attend a press conference organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the third review of Sri Lanka's $2.9 billion bailout on Saturday but warned that the economy remains vulnerable.
In a statement, the global lender said it would release about $333 million, bringing total funding to around $1.3 billion, to the crisis-hit South Asian nation. It said signs of an economic recovery were emerging, Reuters reported.
In a note of caution, it said "the critical next steps are to complete the commercial debt restructuring, finalize bilateral agreements with official creditors along the lines of the accord with the Official Creditor Committee and implement the terms of the other agreements. This will help restore Sri Lanka's debt sustainability."
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka plunged into its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades in 2022 with a severe dollar shortage sending inflation soaring to 70%, its currency to record lows and its economy contracting by 7.3% during the worst of the fallout and by 2.3% last year.
"Maintaining macroeconomic stability and restoring debt sustainability are key to securing Sri Lanka's prosperity and require persevering with responsible fiscal policy," the IMF said.
The IMF bailout secured in March last year helped stabilize economic conditions. The rupee has risen 11.3% in recent months and inflation disappeared, with prices falling 0.8% last month.
The island nation's economy is expected to grow 4.4% this year, the first increase in three years, according to the World Bank.
However, Sri Lanka still needs to complete a $12.5 billion debt restructuring with bondholders, which President Anura Kumara Dissanayake aims to finalize in December.
Sri Lanka will enter into individual agreements with bilateral creditors including Japan, China and India needed to complete a $10 billion debt restructuring, Dissanayake said.
He won the presidency in September, and his leftist coalition won a record 159 seats in the 225-member parliament in a general election last week.